I’m a sucker for a book about travel or far off places. So this book about a group of friends from Norway that takes place in Fiji definitely sucked me in. Unfortunately I found it to be very slow in the story line and kind of boring in the writing. I found that I had a hard time keeping my interest in this story the whole way through. I didn’t find the characters very likeable and I found the chocolate making aspect of the book to surprisingly be very minimal in the story.

I am sorry for not reviewing fully but I don’t have the time to read this anymore. I believe that it wouldn't benefit you as a publisher or your book if I only skimmed it and wrote a rushed review. Again, I am sorry for not fully reviewing!

Beautiful story about women growing - at any age. Well written characters that you feel for and with them.

The story is about high school friends coming together in their 60’s in Fiji. I think the title of the book accurately sums up what it’s about.

A good solid read.

Pieces of Happiness had a very creative setup, where five women in their 60's, friends of many years, came together, to live on a cocoa farm in Fiji. A fun concept, where these women, with different challenges in their lives/past, reflect and interact, while starting a chocolate business on their farm. It was an intriguing concept, although I somehow had a hard time relating to this story and its characters. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the e-reader copy, for my review. All opinions are my own.

I think Goodreads blurb says it all "A novel of five lifelong friends who, in their sixties, decide to live together on a cocoa farm in Fiji, where they not only start a chocolate business but strengthen their friendships and rediscover themselves."
I thought this book was well written and the story was unique. Five woman who were friends all come together to another Country to work a cocoa farm and start a chocolate business.
you also get to met some very interesting characters.

My thanks to NetGalley, the author and publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I must admit that I picked up this book because I thought the cover was gorgeous. However, I went into this story thinking this was going to be one I fell in love with because, well CHOCOLATE! Unfortunately it didn’t quite land there for me. I’m a huge fan of books that explore the lives of older characters because I believe we can learn so much from them. However, I just didn’t know enough about them, about their friendship. It was hard to comprehend that these 4 women would come together overseas when I really knew very little about each one. I did enjoy the alternating perspectives which kept me engaged. I was also secretly hoping for a bit more chocolate to be involved. It was almost an afterthought. Sad to say this just was not the story for me.

I am declining to write a review for this book as I was not able to finish it. This was a case of the book and the characters not clicking for me. It was me not the book. Since I did not finsih the book, I will not be writing or posting a review, or rating it. Thanks for the opportunity.

A group of high school friends together again after forty years. A cocoa plantation in Fiji. An improbable premise that invites you to suspend disbelief and come along. A beautiful setting that becomes a backdrop for this character driven story. A focus on some of the issues of aging and the vital role of friendship in that process. These all together comprise the Pieces of Happiness by Ann Ostby.

Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2017/11/pieces-of-happiness.html

Reviewed for NetGalley

This takes place in Fiji with an older group of women. They all have their own secrets and decide to give it a go at making chocolate. There's a slower pace here but fits the setting. At times, this was like an emotional rollercoaster for me. The chapters changed to each woman's viewpoint, and the way it's written, I could feel what each one was going through. Definitely tugs at your heartstrings but also shows the bonding and friendship in a lush backdrop. Of course, any book that mentions chocolate has my full attention.

Light, easy beach read from Anne Ostby.

Five women from Norway take their sixth friend up on her offer to join her on her cocoa plantation in Fiji following the death of her husband. We meet and follow each woman with her own challenges. This is a book about older women, women who have lived a bulk of their lives already and are looking for the next thing.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Did not finish. I was hoping to like this, but it just did not grab me right away.... my mind kept wandering and I just wanted to move onto something a little more interesting and exciting!

This is a sweet book about 5 friends who in their retirement years, all join together in Fiji at the farm of their friend Katrine.. Throughout the book, we learn of their backstories, their lives, and their reasons for leaving everything in Norway behind. While I love the idea of a novel centering around women friends in their retirement age, this plot just didn't have enough zing to keep me interested. I found it difficult to keep the ladies straight, mostly because nothing in their stories had me captivated. But it is a beautiful picture of friendship and of the island, but it just wasn't a captivating storyline. I can read a really good book in 1-2 days, a good book in 5-7. This book took me almost a month to get through.

"A novel of five lifelong friends who, in their sixties, decide to live together on a cocoa farm in Fiji, where they not only start a chocolate business but strengthen their friendships and rediscover themselves."

This single sentence was enough to make me request a copy of this title from Netgalley to review. The book centers on a group of five friends who grew up in Norway and are now women in their sixties, just starting their next phase of life. Kat is recently widowed and living on a cocoa farm in Fiji and sends letters out to her four high school friends and invites them to come and live with her in Fiji - to support each other and embrace their new years as close group of sisters. Sina, Maya, Ingrid and Lisbeth are all at interesting crossroads in their respective lives when the invitation arrives. It was a pleasure, but at times difficult, to watch these women make the decision to shed their old skins and start anew in Fiji, while finding their way back to each other after 40 some odd years of living their own lives. There were moments of inspiration, sadness, confusion and ultimately, resolution. This was a beautiful story of women finding themselves, and their own strengths and happiness, outside of their responsibilities (work, spouses, children, etc.). Though I have many years until this part of my life, I found it a comfort and inspiration to read this story and to realize your journey is only over when you stop writing the story.

I received a copy of this title from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

The Goodreads blurb is spot on for this one: "A novel of five lifelong friends who, in their sixties, decide to live together on a cocoa farm in Fiji, where they not only start a chocolate business but strengthen their friendships and rediscover themselves." I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and getting to know each of the women. The book is warm and hopeful, full of understanding and forgiveness. And the setting is marvelous; I loved the glimpse of Fiji's physical beauty and culture.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me an eARC of this book.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC for my Kindle.
A story of 5 friends who decide to live together after 40 years of living their individuals lives. One is a widow, one is divorced, one is on the verge of bankruptcy, one has a terminal illness, and one is just lonely. You'll cry, you'll laugh, you'll get mad, and you'll smile. Great book about aging and friendship.

Kat lives in Fiji on a cocoa plantation. Following the death of her husband, she invites (via some beautiful letters) her old friends to come live with her and just see what happens. Each woman has her own chapters and point of view, and each woman has her own joys and challenges that she brings to the island.

I have not seen many view that focus on women over 60 - they are side characters much more often (if they are in the story at all). But life does go on, and I thought the concerns and the joys of each of the ladies were very realistic. I especially loved how the women supported Maya.

There isn't action or high drama, but it is a wonderful story of friendship and mutual support.

Five women in their sixties decide to take up residence on the island of Fiji in a bid for a new phase of life. The friends rely on their ties from high school to buffer them from resistance by their families, but they will also have to find something solid to counter their own doubts about the entire enterprise. Norwegian author Anne Ostby offers American readers a plot that proceeds at the same languid pace as a day on a sunny South Pacific island in the book Pieces of Happiness.

Katrine “Kat” Vale lives in the village of Korototoka in Fiji, far away from her home country of Norway. Right after high school, she followed the love of her life, Niklas, on a grand adventure. They traveled the world seeking opportunities to help the less fortunate and downtrodden. They’ve built buildings and started schools and finally decided to set up retirement in the South Pacific with a cocoa farm. An accident takes Niklas from Kat, and she’s lived enough life now to know that she’s lonely and needs company.

Kat reaches out to her friends from high school. They had quite a group, the five of them, and even though they haven’t stayed in consistent contact since their school days Kat sends each of them a letter. She knows them all well enough to guess they’ll join her in Fiji, that they’ll be willing to change their lives and come live out the rest of their days with her.

And they do come. Sina, a single mother whose son’s greatest accomplishment is leeching money from his mother at every possible opportunity, arrives first. Dependable Ingrid comes next, and she brings with her the secret alter ego no one knows about. Lisbeth escapes her lackluster marriage to high school sweetheart Harald to join the others in Fiji.

The only one left to arrive is Maya, but Maya’s daughter emails Kat to let her know that there will be a delay. Maya has been diagnosed with an irreversible health problem. Kat responds with an encouraging note. Bring her anyway, she says. Maybe the sunshine will do Maya some good for whatever time she has left.

In her letters to them, Kat had hinted at the possibility of starting a new business: turning some of the cocoa harvest into chocolate for sale. As they explore the idea, all of the women begin to work through their own issues. Kat deals with her anger at Niklas for dying. Sina must decide if she can stand up to her son. Ingrid leaves behind the ordered world of accounting for a more free-spirited approach to life. Lisbeth finds that she has more to contribute to their new family than just keeping house. All of them, including Kat, look out for Maya who needs more help as the weeks and months progress. When they come to a series of crossroads, all of them will need to make decisions that change their lives more than changing to Fiji ever could.

Author Anne Ostby draws on her own experiences living around the world as well as her Norwegian heritage to create the characters and her plot. Her careful detailing of life in Fiji may draw readers in, but it also leaves the pace plodding along. The story develops in its own sweet time, and some readers may get impatient with the book as they wait for Kat and Company to encounter the novel’s key conflicts.

Readers will guess some of those conflicts long before they come to fruition, but Ostby manages to keep a few secrets along the way. For those who stick with the book all the way through, the secrets may provide some satisfaction. It may take a healthy dose of patience to get that far, however.

I recommend readers Borrow Pieces of Happiness.

I wish I had enjoyed this book more but, in the end, I'm left feeling that it was just alright. There were bright points, when the island and its people would shine through. But I found myself not particularly caring for any of the women. They really blended together for me and, while most were fine, I actually found myself disliking one character I was supposed to be rooting for. The pacing of the prose is very slow, which I guess is like the island itself but as a reader it was hard to slog through at times. If I hadn't agreed to review it, I don't think I would have finished it.

All this to say, I think this book will really resonate with other types of readers. I was really thrilled by a book that features older main characters front and center. Maybe it is my being so much younger than the protagonists that made me not connect with them.

NOTE: I received a free Kindle edition of this novel via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I would like to thank NetGalley, the publisher Doubleday Books, and the author Anne Ostby for the opportunity to do so.

Pieces of Happiness is a novel about five high school friends from Norway who are reunited in their sixties when one of them invites the rest to come and live on her cocoa farm in Fiji after she is widowed. "I've planted my feet on Fijian earth and I intend to stay here until the last sunset. Why don't you join me? Leave behind everything that didn't work out!" The book has positives and negatives. Positives are the love and support that these women show each other, the descriptions of the Fijian culture, and the English translation which is quite well done. Negatives are that the novel got off to a slow start mainly because the author had to describe the past lives and characters of five women as well as others that were part of their lives. It made a lot of characters to keep straight and I think made the reader not become as emotionally hooked on them as quickly. This book would be a perfect read for someone who had the time to read it in one sitting for that reason. Another main character is the Fijian housekeeper whose prayers are featured after each chapter. This was a lovely if slightly repetitive feature of the novel, but I did really appreciate a quote from one of these chapters:. "The ladies in the house are like a necklace made of shells: from the same beach, but each of them a little different. Each one worries for the next one on the string: Madam Lisbeth worries for Madam Sina, Madam Sina for Madam Maya, Madam Ingrid for Madam Kat, and Madam Kat for all of them." Thank you Doubleday and NetGalley for allowing me to review this ARC.

Thank you for the early copy of this book. I really wanted to love it. The idea was a good one, but it was difficult to be enthusiastic about all of the characters..